Welcome!

Welcome to the Save Social Security blog. This blog was established to document exactly where each representative and senator in the 109th Congress stands on Social Security "privatization", a.k.a. Social Security abolition.

UPDATE: Josh Marshall has come up with a better system than this, so I've decided to shut this one down. Thanks to everyone who helped. I've been amazed at the level of support I've gotten, and the volume of e-mails, but I can no longer keep the site going alone. Thanks for your support.

How you can help

2a. Visit your legislator's website and see if they have an "issues" section. If they do, check if they specifically mention Social Security. If they are blatantly supporting privatization or are blatantly against it, we can assume they will support whatever bill goes to Congress. 2b. Call your Legislators, and find out if they are Strongly Against, Leaning Against, On the Fence, Leaning For, or Strongly For Social Security Privatization.2c. Check mainstream media articles and see if any legislators are blatantly pro- or anti-privatization.

43 Comments:

I work for Matagorda County and a such do not pay into Social Security. We have an alternate plan and I think it is the best thing that the county has going for it's employees. When I retire I plan to invest, my funds in The Alternate plan, in stocks and owning my own businesses.Here's a link to my curent website:www.legalwave.info

I work for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and DO pay into Social Security. As a Commonwealth employee, I am a member of the State Employees Retirement Fund. This will provide a handsome retirement for me, IF I stay healthy. But if I don't, I know that I have the added "bonus" of Social Security.

Social Security has been keeping older Americans from poverty for nearly two generations. Social Security is healthy and successful! As a matter of fact, it is one of the great American Success Stories! It has served millions of people and given them dignity and peace in the remaining years of their lives.

The beautiful thing about Social Security - as it is now - is that it is NOT sway to market forces, unlike my state pension fund. If you think gambling with your retirement is a great idea, then I suggest you talk to the tens of thousands of Enron employees who now have NOTHING BUT SOCIAL SECURITY!

What Sam Cunningham isn't telling us, upthread, is that many government employees 'exempted' from Social Security in past decades will be double-dipping during their retirement by collecting benefits from BOTH the government employee plan AND Social Security.

This, they can do simply by paying the bulk of their retirement funds into the state or muinicipal plan over their career and in addition moonlighting enough quarters to qualify for Social Security, as well. Most double-dippers also view Social Security as a safety net that guarantees at least cat food on the table during their golden years, even if every other retirement plan they have goes south. It also makes possible a riskier investment strategy with their non-SSA contributions.

What Bush wants to do to the Social Security system is a far different story, but it will impact even the double-dippers. Under Bush's plan, workers just like Sam, but who work for the typical employer covered by Social Security (the vast majority of employers), would have to DIVIDE their retirement earnings between Social Security and some private plan. This would yield far less in the "safety net" of Social Security benefits and maybe more -- but maybe less -- from the private investment plan -- depending on broker and administration fees, market gyrations, the wisdom of the American voter (ha ha), and plain old investor luck.

Double-dippers are welcome to their rewards, as far as I am concerned. But it sure seems hypocritical for them to treat Social Security as their own safety net while willfully cheering on Bush as he shreds it for everyone else in the generations to come.

Sam Cunningham's kids and grandkids probably still will be able to count on having at least cat food, I suppose, but only half as much.

We received your e-mail inquiring as to Congresswoman Lowey's position on legislation to privatize Social Security. Congresswoman Lowey is strongly against any such proposal. For more information, please refer to her webpage on this issue. Thank you.

A majority of recipients voted Republican last election (why do we continue to protect the gravy trains of groups such as unions and teachers and public employees that even vote for Democrats?). Yet Democrats continue to support an unfair and inefficient institution: Social Security. Just because the GOP demands a self-serving reform that would add $2 billion to the Debt and still require a safety net (for those whose investments don't pan out or if the market crashes) doesn't mean Dems should give knee-jerk support for preserving it. And just because Social Security IS solvent doesn't make it not worth overhauling. If there were no Social Security in place, Dems would never support imposing the cockamamie system we have today where (1) recipients experience a much smaller share of poverty than working-age payroll taxpayers, (2) recipient payments are indexed to inflation and many times what they paid during their working years (i.e., completely actuarily unsound), (3) payments are capped at $89,000, a regressive tax, yet hits the very first dollar the poorest earn: reverse Robin Hood! (4) the system is designed to protect the pride of the elderly that this "entitlement" is not the "welfare" that it is (there IS NO TRUST FUND, it is and always has been pay as we go!), (5) each year, the "surplus" of payroll taxes over payouts goes into the General Fund, to be spent on war and to fund tax cuts to the wealthy, (6) The people who need social security most receive the least because payments partly based on earnings during one's working years, (7) the 7.65% tax matching contribution by employers increases hiring costs to employers, thus encouraging downsizing, overtime (often unpaid), outsourcing, and business failure while reducing take-home pay of workers, (8) has helped convince us to reduce our net saving rate to near zero levels and our per capita consumer debt to 115% of GDP! What about those that claim "we can't get there from here" because of our obligations to current and future recipients. But there is no trust fund and a majority of Gen X and Y workers don't believe anything will be there for them when they reach retirement age. Thus, a workable solution that is infinitely more equitable and economically efficient alternative to the GOP plan is to convert payroll taxes into a public trust fund that will generate the economic engine to fund future social security: earmark these tax collections for additional financing of infrastructure transportation and other needed construction, education and training, and civilian research and development (such as alternative fuels, medical research, electronics, and aerospace) that are investments paying large future dividends in productivity and rising real income. The payroll tax should be made mildly progressive by eliminating the income cap and instituting a floor (say, at $30,000). Finally, eliminate the employer match portion for those employers providing catastrophic medical insurance (say, low cost $1500 annual deductable per person); that would help keep more jobs here, promote hiring, and increase the value (and health) of lower income workers. Even if (or especially if) the GOP finds this plan unpalatable, it is a plan that advocacy advertising (a la Harry and Louis) would be able to promotes and sell (and take into the 2006 and 2008 elections), rather than relying on trying to scare people who are less and less easily frightened about losing what they don't believe they will ever get.

I think you people are nuts to worry about the privatization issue. What's really scary about the Bush plan is "price indexing" of benefits. It will cut your benefits by 10 to 50 percent, and for many (those forced out of the workplace before age 65) it offers no way to make up for the cuts (no private accounts, no nothing). This is what has to be stopped. Then worry about privatization.

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BAILOUT:::part ot it should go for the Government putting back the TRILLIONS they have used out of the S/S funds. They are the reason it's in the shape it is in. Time for both parties to pay their IOU's' Everyone paid S/S taxes for S/S, not to be used for things which we paid Income taxes for.

I wrote my congressman the other day - Feel free to send this comment to your senator or representative.

Change the law so that the Social Security administration can contact everyone planning to retire and say to them "Lets make a deal. If you keep working, you can have your taxes freeze at the amount you are now paying, and you won't be paying anything into Social Security as long as you keep working."

Since your boss takes 7.5% out of your paycheck to send to SS, and your boss pays in an equal amount, it would be like you, the worker, getting a 7.5% raise. That's $750 dollars for every $10,000 you make. And your boss would have reason to keep you on because you'd be cheaper.

If 1 million people, with salaries averaging $40,000 would agree to this, even if for one year, they wouldn't be adding to Social Security, but they also wouldn't be subtracting from Social Security or Medicare. If the average SS check is $900 a month, $10,800 a year, minus the $6000 these million people are not paying into SS, it would save the government $4.8 BILLION a year, just on Social Security payments, not counting Medicare. It's not a lot in terms of Trillion dollar deficits, but it doesn't cut anyone's benefits or raise taxes.

Feel free to copy, paste, and mail or e-mail this to your representatives.